Most often when a person starts a task as monumental as learning to be a producer, they do not know where to start. Even if they are going in the right direction, they fail to set goals and a path they can follow to get the most results from their efforts. While there is no one road to becoming a successful producer. Planning your ascent can make a huge difference. With out a general plan to guide you on your way. You can do a lot things that will waste you time. Your plan does not have to be set in stone either. Things change, and you plan will change accordingly. Here are some great tips for stream lining your journey to the top as a producer.

1. Create time SMART goals. What is a smart goal? It is a goal that is specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound. Don’t laugh this stuff works. For example, a long term goal of being a hit producer is to broad, and provides no real motivation or direction. Saying you want to get 1 of your tracks on a major label release within 2 years, spending 20 hours a week on production, and 20 hours a week on business development is a much better goal.
2. Have short term and long term goals. Make set goals and track if you are meeting them. An example would be to spend 3 hours a week master a new feature or function in your recording software, or 3 hours every other week copying what hit producers are doing so you can see what works and hone your skills.
3. Realize that to make it, you will need more than good beats, or good songs. You will need work ethic. Unfortunately, music is only half of the phrase Music Business. You will need to run your studio like a business. Once you feel your production is on the level, set aside 1 day a week to create the necessary business contacts with entertainment lawyers, A&R’s, big producers, writers, and interns at labels. Yes interns make up the majority of entry level positions at labels. If they get an A&R job, and you befriended them while an intern, you are money.
4. Again with the business stuff. Sign up for ASCAP, and learn about publishing, licensing, and your wrights as an artist. I promise that someone will take advantage of you if you do not know this stuff.
5. Spend a few hours a week (you decide how much but make it an exact number) Expanding you range of skills. Build your sound library, think about where music is going, so you can get there first.
6. Market, Market, Market, Market. You got to hustle. More than ever before an artist or producer has to be self reliant. Just make sure you register the albums you are selling with billboard so that you can get credit for the sales. This is very important, because it lets others know that people will buy your music.
7. Music is a show me business. Talking all day is worth nill if you cant Walk for 3:30’s. Treat this like a profession, and you will stand out from everyone else. Successful producers all have one thing in common. They are workaholics, or at least were at one time. If it is about the party, you will fail. You can work hard, and play hard, but in that order. It isnt play hard, work hard and it never will be.
8. Start from the basics. Pick either logic or protools and save up the money to get a strong computer to go with. They key is sound quality, read up on the tech side of things. A good friend of mine had a great mic and pre amp combo, but he was not using the pre amp properly. I switched his settings, and there was a very AUDIBLE change in sound quality, and tone of any singers voice. Those little differences ad up. Its what seperates you from the top.

I can sing, but I can’t write music. What do I do?
Don’t worry, a good producer can take your vocal style into account and should incorporate that feeling into the track. Keep in mind, that if you are at this stage in the game, you may not know your real potential and best vocal style. I have heard many singers that were R&B singers, that we got stuck using for an in a rush indy rock DEMO for an artist submission. It turned out that she was a better Indy Rock singer with producer guidance than R&B. We ended up getting her deal as a and Indy Rock act. Also, producer would rather write as much of the song as possible if they are smart. You should want to write as much as you can as well. Even if it is just the lyrics. If your song does make it anywhere whoever rights and produces it will make more than you will for singing it. Read some of our articles on Licensing and Publishing rights for more info on that. If you cannot write, have someone do it for you, but start working on it. It is where the money is.
How much should I expect to pay for a demo?
This is one of those instances where you really do get what you pay for. Great producers do not work for pennies. If you are paying rock bottom pricing, it better be because they believe in your potential and want a piece of the pie later. Since this is not the normal case. Be prepared to spend some money. You are looking at a minimum of $1,000 per song for legitimate demo. That is a steal. This is not the place to go cheap. If you look at a career in music like building a house, this is the foundation. Your demo has to competes with hundreds of others. Give it a fighting chance. If the quality sounds cheap or bad, you are screwed! Don’t make this mistake. Email us and we can put you in touch with some credible sources with decent pricing for great demo’s. They still costs money, but for what you get they should be shot for what you pay.
Take control of your demo
If you have had the demo written for you, make sure that it complements your voice, if you cannot hit a high F and you are a girl, say it’s not going to happen. Eventually you will have to do it live, and that is not going to work. Make sure it is a song that works with you abilities. An example of this is John Mayer, or Jack Johnson. They are both very moving singers that touch millions of people. Neither of them can sing incredibly high powerful notes. They do what sounds best for them. Do the same. Everyone has unique qualities about their voice. Identify them, and accentuate them, and you will stand out from the crowd.

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Judging by the google search I have seen on this topic, there are quite a few people out there who are “trying to recover late fathers music royalties” or are “heirs look to claim copyright music royalties.” These are both very tricky situations, and nearly impossible to do on your own. Your best bet is to hire a music royalties attorney. They will be easy to find if your are in Los Angeles, or New York, but else where may be difficult to locate. Publishing is difficult enough without having to add in changing the copyright owner. For those claiming to be benefactors of copyright royalties, it is best to have that addressed in a will. For those who are simply trying to recover their lost royalties, check out harry fox agency. They specialize in collecting owed royalties.

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Many people would like to be able to track their music royalties in near real time. The only trouble with that is there are only a handful of companies that actually provide this service, and they are way to expensive for most people to use to track royalties. Instead they must sit and wait for their royalty check to appear. Most likely those who have search and found this post were hoping for an answer, but I have yet to find one. If you do in fact have a way of tracking royalties, please post it as a comment on this blog and I will happily look into and let others know.

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A print license covers the sale of sheet music, and printed lyric sheets. Digital rights are relatively new and cover items such as ring tones, which are a huge market. This also covers PDF files, and any other types of digital media excluding MP3 style formats. So there are the basics for you. Obviously I did not explain all about Publishing in less than 2 paragraphs. for that I would recommend

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Many people get performance rights license issues confused. While they do include live performance of the material, they also include music royalties radio play, video, broadcasts, and are collected by a performance rights agency. This will most likely be either BMI or ASCAP, although there are others.

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A synchronization license is given when in the instance of TV and film, when a copyrighted piece of music is paired with another copyrighted work such as film. These can be large royalties in the case of a major motion picture, or national television show. Due to the expansion of television, and the increasing amount of content. Synchronization Licenses for music publishing of background tracks for TV and FILM has been one of the only growth markets in the music industry in the last several years.

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A mechanical license for music royalties is issued by a copyright owner which allows the party being issued the mechanical license to make reproductions for the purpose of sale. Original, it literally meant “Mechanical Reproduction,” as in the production of albums or cd’s. It is still called mechanical royalties a digital file such as an MP3 is sold, although there is not actual physical reproduction. No matter what type of contract is agreed to, mechanical royalties are protect by law, and cannot be touched. It breaks down to 9.1 cents per song under 5 minutes, and an additional 1.75 cents per minute over 5. This is the standard but higher rates can be negotiated.

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Attention Antares Auto Tune fanatics. If you have not yet heard of Melodyne, then you have been missing out. Now on its third version, I started with the Celemony Melodyne 2.6 Download, Melodyne has all the kinks worked out and is a must have for any studio or home recording set up. Melodyne ease of use and midi style formatting, allow for excellent productivity. Where pitch correction would have taken hours with auto tune, it only takes minutes with Melodyne. The only drawback is that it is not a real time plug in. The benefits far outweigh the negatives, especially if you are dealing with a pitchy singer trying to record a demo track. I would have cried numerous times on a recent recording if I did not have Melodyne.

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They have a trial version that you can check out for the Mac that has great functionality. I would recommend Melodyne Uno for home studios and those that don’t need multi track editing. For pro’s, the benefits of the extra $400’s on the price tag are well worth it. Try it once and you will never go back.

While you will learn good info, in a music business school. Most are simply money pits, designed to leave you in debt with limited skills and experience. A great example is Full Sail in Orlando, Fl. If you have a trust

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fund, want to learn some really cool skills, and do not care where you end up in life. It is a great place to be. Unfortunately for most that go to the state of the art facility where the walls are repainted almost every day and they hype there state of the art 100% floated on rubber disk studio, all you get from your accelerated degree, is a $70,000 loan which gets you a degree for a job, that will pay you $50,000 if you are lucky enough to find one. I am talking more on the technical side of things of course, but you get the idea. Skip the music business school, and aim for a real world education on this one. Plus if you are still interested in full sail. I will include the website link. The possible degree you can get for the music business, is a law degree in entertainment law.

http://www.fullsail.com/online/index.html